The Pont Royal is one of 37 bridges located in Paris (France) across the Seine in the 7th and 1st arrondissements. It is the third oldest bridge in the city, after the Pont Neuf and the Pont Marie. This monument has been classified as a historic monument since May 1, 1939.
It connects the right bank at the Pavillon de Flore to the left bank between rue du Bac and rue de Beaune. Its neighbors, upstream, are the Carrousel bridge, and downstream, the Léopold-Sédar-Senghor footbridge. It provides access, on the south side, to Promenade Édouard-Glissant and Promenade Marceline-Loridan-Ivens, and, on the north side, to Quai Aimé-Césaire.
The district is served by the Tuileries metro station.
In 1632, the entrepreneur Pierre Pidou directed the construction of a wooden toll-bridge which would be called Pont Sainte-Anne (in deference to Anne of Austria) or Pont Rouge (due to its color). It was designed to replace the Tuileries ferry upon which the rue du Bac (bac meaning ferry in French) owes its name. The ferry had been offering crossings since 1550.
The bridge was finally reconstructed between 25 October 1685 and 13 June 1689, this time with stone, receiving complete financing from King Louis XIV.
During the First French Empire (1804-1814), Napoléon I renamed the bridge the Pont des Tuileries, a name that was kept until the Restoration in 1814 when Louis XVIII gave back to the bridge its royal name.
The bridge underwent a last reconstruction in 1850.
Next upstream: Pont du Carrousel
Next downstream: Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor
See more:
